1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-implemented methods and systems for pharmaceutical and medicinal dispensation services and, more specifically, for pharmaceutical and medicinal dispensation services in correctional facilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Managed healthcare is an important service that is required by law to be provided to all inmates within correctional facilities. Most correctional facilities do not have the internal resources to fully provide efficient managed healthcare services. For this reason, most correctional facilities outsource healthcare to entities that are better suited to handle healthcare on such a large scale.
Often in connection with correctional facilities, data related to inmates, such as demographic information, is maintained to provide the correctional facilities with accurate facility occupancy records and for other administrative purposes. This information has been historically maintained as a computer database on a particular computer system or network.
Correctional facilities have also maintained medical records or medical histories in a separate database on a separate computer system. The medical records have been used to record such events as provider visit results, prescription histories, lab work results, and the like. The medical records typically have been developed and maintained either by the correctional facilities or by a third party that has been providing healthcare services for the correctional facility system.
Even though the databases were created for different, specific purposes, some of the information from each of these databases would be useful in providing administrative healthcare services within the correctional facilities. However, the computer databases have been created separately in incompatible computer protocols. To effectively provide healthcare administrative services, both or more computer systems are needed. The computers need to be able to communicate with each other and provide access to the databases contained within the two separate computer systems.
In addition to the need of each computer system to be able to communicate with each other, federal regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), related to confidentiality and privacy of individual health records, have created an additional feature complicating factor for those involved in dealing with medical records. Medical records are required to be kept confidential and safeguards are required to be taken to protect such records. For example, many providers have a stated policy prohibiting transfer of information related to an individual's medical record by facsimile transmission because they do not deem this to be a secure transmittal method. Security measures are required to be implemented by those providing healthcare services to limit or control access to confidential medical records.
Medicinal administrators within correctional facilities are also required to maintain records associated with the physical administration and dispensation of prescribed medication to inmates. Inmates by law must have proper medical care while in the custody of the correctional facilities. Inmates historically have filed lawsuits against the correctional facilities claiming that they have been denied proper medical care. To provide sufficient evidence that the correctional facilities has exerted its best efforts to provide proper medical care, the correctional facilities have maintained records indicating the time, type, and dosage of medication that was administered to an inmate. A guard has been present during medication administration to ensure that the inmate actually consumed the prescribed medication, unless, as in rare circumstances, the inmate was allowed to keep the medication on his or her person, which is referred to keep-on-person medication. The correctional facility has kept records indicating whether or not the inmate has actually consumed the medication. Many times the records are either paper based or kept on a standalone computer system. To maintain this information efficiently, access to the medical record and demographic databases would be helpful to assist those that provide medication administrative and dispensation services within the correctional facility.
Medication inventory within the correctional facilities has been difficult to manage effectively. The correctional facilities generally have had a central pharmacy that has been responsible for supplying medication to the individual correctional facility units within a correctional facility. The central pharmacy has had a computer system of its own that typically has not been tied into the demographic database maintained by the prison system or the medical record database maintained either by the healthcare providers or by the correctional facility. Maintaining the inventory within the prison units and the central pharmacy and shipment of the medication to the correctional facility units are additional areas that would benefit from access to the data contained within the demographic and medical record databases.
As noted above, several types of data have been required and kept separately by prison and other detention systems, such as demographic information and medical health records. To keep the contents of different databases accurate, duplicate entries were required because much of the data is the same within the different databases. The databases have been created in separate computing environments for different purposes. At present, so far as known, instances have occurred in which data has been needed from each of the separate databases. Communication between the separate databases that were created in different computer environments has not been possible because of the incompatible formats of the separate databases. Maintaining the databases has also been difficult because each prison system has its own procedure for updating its demographic and medical record databases.